In a third floor ballroom at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel Monday (Feb. 17), sound expert David Woolworth held what appeared to be an innocuous educational seminar for dozens of residents, musicians and nightclub owners, explaining the science behind sound measurement and how it can be used to improve the city's noise ordinance.

But not everyone agreed Woolworth's presentation was innocently academic.

Nathan Chapman, a former president of Vieux Carre Property Owners Residents and Associates and a leading advocate for revising noise regulations to better protect the quality of life for residents, issued a statement prior to the meeting. He accused Woolworth and Robert Watters, chairman of the French Quarter Management District, of potential bias and attempting to prevent public input by holding the meeting during the day.

"The resident organizations, despite their recognized expertise on this issue, were given no opportunity to help plan these sessions," Chapman said.

The Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans, which represents musicians, venue owners and traditional culture bearers such as Mardi Gras Indians, issued a competing statement Monday claiming the resident groups have played too large of a role in the process to the exclusion of everyone else.

"A small group of wealthy and well-connected residents of the French Quarter (tried) to push through their version of a noise ordinance for the City of New Orleans," MACCNO stated. "The backroom dealers aren't interested in finding solutions that support livable neighborhoods while also supporting the economy, creating jobs, or encouraging growth. Instead, they are interested in using their money and influence to get exactly what they want. This type of thing has gone on far too long in New Orleans, and the time has come for it to stop."

Woolworth's seminar was the first of three scheduled meetings to be held by the French Quarter Management District, a state agency created to deal with quality of life issues in the French Quarter. The council hired him in 2012 at a cost of $15,000 to study the issue and renewed his contract through 2014 to find a standard sound level for music clubs with which to build a new noise ordinance around.

Once the three meetings are completed March 6, Woolworth said he would study his data and present his findings to the council, which is likely to introduce a draft ordinance at its March 27 regular meeting.

After his hour-long presentation, Woolworth fielded 20 minutes of questions and adjourned the meeting. It lacked the rancor that has dominated the issue since Dec. 19, when the council first proposed significant revisions to the city's noise ordinance, much to the consternation of many musicians and music club owners.

The council later withdrew those proposals following public outcry and announced it would narrow its focus to noise issues on Bourbon Street.

The peaceful scene at the Monday's meeting, however, did not mean that all sides were content with how the process has played out. Chapman slammed the French Quarter Management District as a "non-elected, state-created agency," that has no established by-laws governing its mission or operations."

He questioned the impartiality of the district by pointing out that Watters, is "an owner and operator of a Bourbon Street adult establishment (Rick's Cabaret) and formerly represented the Bourbon Business Alliance.

And he criticized the timing of the sessions that "are being held during the daytime, which may be convenient for business owners, but not for the general public," Chapman wrote.

The two resident groups that held board seats with the district, VCPORA and French Quarter Citizens, suspended their membership last week "for a number of reasons," Chapman stated, "including the current process regarding the sound ordinance."

Woolworth said he contacted the resident groups and offered to hold a private meeting for them at their convenience but they never responded.

Chapman also questioned Woolworth's relationship with several Bourbon Street businesses that led to attorney Stuart Smith calling for Woolworth's resignation last week. Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who was instrumental in the hiring of Woolworth, rejected that demand.

Chapman's email was released by the Brylski Company, a public relations firm that worked on Councilwoman Stacy Head's reelection campaign, is employed by Smith and has represented Chapman, VCPORA and French Quarter Citizens in their efforts to revise the current noise ordinance.

Smith, who has lawsuits pending against several French Quarter music clubs, has been a significant contributor to the campaigns of several councilmembers, donating $10,000 to Head since 2012, $2,000 to Palmer in 2010, $2,500 to Susan Guidry in 2013 and 2014 and $1,500 to Cynthia Hedge-Morrell in 2013, according to the Louisiana Ethics Administration.

Despite Chapman's complaints that residents are being muscled out of the current process, Chapman and VCPORA were heavily involved in drafting the failed Dec. 19 proposal and consulted with Head's office on both the language of the proposal and the strategy behind it, according to thousands of emails obtained by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.

Much of the public outcry following the council's Dec. 19 introduction of revisions to the noise ordinance focused on the content, with many claiming the council's proposal ignored the Woolworth report that cost taxpayers $15,000 and was based almost exclusively on a list of "seven essential items" created by a group of residents led by VCPORA, Chapman, French Quarter Citizens and Smith.

Business owners and many musicians said they were excluded from the process -- an accusation supported by several emails to and from Head's chief of staff, Jonathan Harris.

"This VCPORA ordinance, which emerged publicly under the cover of the holiday season, has proved indefensible to those who created it," MACCNO said in its Monday statement. "Once the draft became public, it was clearly vastly unpopular and would have had negative repercussions for not only the culture of the city, but also the ability of members of the cultural community to make a living."

Six days before the Dec. 19 revisions were introduced, Harris sent an email to the staff of each council member with a draft of the ordinance attached, stating: "This ordinance will be part of a package of legislative instruments intended to accomplish the '7 Essential Items to make New Orleans Noise Ordinance fair and functional' that many of you already know about."

Head and Palmer later withdrew the ordinance, which attempted to enact three of the seven items to change where sound is measured throughout the city and lower the allowable decibel levels in the French Quarter.

That same day, Harris sent an email to Natalie Mitchell with Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson's office discussing a proposal to allow the city to charge higher or unlimited fees to businesses that violate the noise ordinance, another of the "essential items."

Harris described the idea as "one piece of a bigger puzzle. This puzzle is the 'Seven Essential Items' that has the support of 20 neighborhood groups." Harris then supplied Mitchell a link to the website of the Marketing Center, which is owned by Chapman and lists the seven items.

Through her spokesman, Head released a statement addressing the genesis of the Dec. 19 ordinance, its introduction and its reliance on the residents' list of "seven essential items."

"When Councilmember Head learned that pen had not been put to paper toward any formal ordinance, after more than five years of discussions and thousands of dollars spent on a consultant, she began drafting one," according to the statement. "The ordinance was based on 'Essential Items' 3, 6 and 7, which, based upon the five+ years of research and experiences of this office, were supported by many neighborhood groups, addressed stakeholder concerns and, despite reports to the contrary, comported with the data in the Woolworth Report."

To avoid any signs of bias or a lack of transparency, MACCNO proposed the formation of a working group to study the issue. It would consist of "one-third residents from throughout the entire city, one-third musicians and members of the cultural community, and one-third business owners and tourism officials. A list of members for any working group assembled should be publicly available, their findings should have ample public hearing and use the city commissioned report from Oxford Acoustics as a starting point."

The next French Quarter Management District meeting on the noise ordinance is scheduled for 3 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel.